


everyone knows you're the way to my heart

by cjr



Series: from the window, it's not a bad show [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Betrothal Necklace (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Break Up, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25652560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjr/pseuds/cjr
Summary: Zuko is engaged to marry an earth nation noble.  The news hurts Sokka more than he thinks it should.(Sokka's POV during the events in "I feel like I know you but we've never met")
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: from the window, it's not a bad show [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859764
Comments: 17
Kudos: 153





	everyone knows you're the way to my heart

His day had started out great.All his friends were in the Fire Nation celebrating the 5 year anniversary of Zuko’s coronation and the streets of the Capitol were filled with filled with people dressed in the colors of all nations. 

Sokka had gone shopping with Toph and Sukki and he didn’t even feel a twang in his heart when he saw them holding hands.Instead, he felt utterly happy for them both.Toph got a new headband in Fire Nation Red that did not match the rest of her green outfit. Sokka spent almost an hour talking to a local vendor who made parchment and ink that could hide messages and ensure the writing only shows when the paper is held to the light.He also had some prototype parchment that worked similarly but had to be submerged in water.Sokka bought out almost his entire stock. 

Since the war ended, there weren’t as many secrets flying around, but there were still enough that having a way to hide his would be good. 

By the time lunch rolled around, all three friends were wearing entirely new outfits of the latest Fire Nation style.Sokka blushed every time he saw the red fabric against his skin in a reflection.He couldn’t wait to see how Zuko would react.He was always so bashful when he saw the gang wearing his nation’s colors proudly, like he wouldn’t have imagined they would ever be able to do so. 

They had a lounging lunch in the royal gardens.After, Toph and Sukki disappeared together, leaving Sokka to wander around until Katara and Aang arrived.As he wandered, Sokka made his way to Zuko’s chambers.He knocked, but no one answered.Zuko likely was at council preparing for his speech and whatever “special announcement” he had planned for tonight.

Knowing that Zuko’s bed was comfier than his (even though Zuko said they were made from the exact same feathers, clearly he was lying because Sokka always slept much better in Zuko’s), he entered his friend’s chamber, planning on taking an afternoon nap.What he saw on the desk cleared any drowsiness from his mind.There was a small golden ring, the band curling into flames around a clear crystal.It was beautiful.

Sokka knew the custom in the fire nation was to gift a ring such as this to signify a betrothal.He knew he shouldn’t be surprised that Zuko would make the ring himself, even though nobles usually didn’t.He shouldn’t be surprised that Zuko would get married, he had heirs to worry about and alliances to make.It shouldn’t hurt so much that the ring on the table was so small, was meant for a different hand than his own. 

It shouldn’t hurt that next to the ring, partially hidden under scraps of parchment, was an even more beautiful betrothal necklace.It was a beautiful blue, decorated with flames, and had a red gem inlay in the middle.It had a boomerang gracefully carved around where the gem lay.

It was the necklace that last year, he’d refused to accept.He remembers Zuko holding it out with shaking hands and remembers walking away from the love of his life with a lie on his lips.

“I didn’t think it was that serious, to you.”“I don’t love you, not enough.”“It would be best for both of us, if we had some space.”

He shouldn’t be in here, he doesn’t deserve to be so cavalier about forcing himself back into Zuko’s life after months of not seeing each other, not writing. 

Zuko met him with a hug and a smile when he arrived, like he’d gotten over the hurt that Sokka had left him with.Sokka thought it was an act, but maybe he really has moved on.Maybe he’s fallen in love with the woman who is meant to wear the ring that sits on the desk.

Sokka wonders if it would hurt more or less if he believed that Zuko was marrying for love.His necklace next to it suggests otherwise.The necklace, he corrects himself.Not his.The necklace that sits as a reminder of the time that Zuko had tried to marry for love and been denied. 

Sokka has never told anyone of that night, though he’s sure Katara suspected something when he returned to the south pole barely remembering to eat, refusing to go on missions that would involve the Fire Nation Capitol.

He loved—loves Zuko.With everything in his heart and more.But marriage between them was not possible, Zuko needed allies and heirs and strength.Marrying a man, while accepted in the fire nation, was still not embraced world wide.Still not recognized in the water tribes.Zuko didn’t want that to stop them, reminded Sokka of the time when children ended a lifelong war.Said that they could be strong, together.

Sokka knows it was the right call, strategically.He allows that to give him the same cold comfort it has for the last year as he retreats from Zuko’s room and heads back to the garden, to sit and wait for his sister and Aang to arrive.

* * *

By the time the announcement of Zuko’s engagement (to a powerful Earth Kingdom noble), Sokka was drunk.It was not the fun drunk either, which would’ve been fine.All his friends were fun drunk, celebrating a wedding, an alliance, one more year of progress in healing the world.Sokka tried to celebrate with them, but couldn’t stop stealing glances at Zuko, who was not quite happy but neither unhappy. 

Once, Sokka would’ve been able to merely ask him why he wasn’t happy.But that had been a while ago.

Huni sat at Zuko’s side and talked with his friends as though she’d always been there.She fit in, looked good at Zuko’s side.They looked regal, sitting together.

Not soon enough to be rude, but too soon considering that they hadn’t all seen each other for a year, Zuko excused himself.The murderous look Katara sent his way reinforced his theory that she knew some of what had occurred.Sokka did the only thing he could, and he followed Zuko out.

He found him in the first place he looked, sitting at the edge of the turtleduck pond.It was a beautiful scene. He wanted to go sit next to his friend, his love, and just hold him until nothing else mattered.Instead, he stood where he was and just watched.

“Sokka,” Zuko said, his name had never sounded so good on someone else’s lips.

“Hey Zuko,” he replied, still to the other man’s back.Looking at each other would be too much for either of them.“Congratulations, I’m happy for you.”He hoped the lie didn’t echo to Zuko the way it did for him.

“You are?” Zuko spoke more to the water than to Sokka.

“Of course.Huni will make a great fire lady.”At least this was not a lie. 

“I barely know who she is.”

Sokka couldn’t provide comfort there.But he could provide comfort in the reinforcement that it is a good alliance to make.

“But everyone knows the tales of the great Izumi.The most powerful earth bender in the Kingdom.She brought peace to the entire Western coast during the 100 year war.”Zuko was marrying into a strong family, a solid family, it was a good decision.The right decision.

“Yes, she did.”Zuko replied, his voice lacking emotion in a way he’d only learned after his coronation.The words hung between them for a while until Zuko broke the silence.“Sokka—“

“No.”Sokka interrupted.He knew that voice, knew whatever waited for him after Zuko said his name like that would not be something he had any interest in hearing.“No.”It was a plea more than anything.He didn’t think he could withstand Zuko asking anything of him now.

Zuko was quiet for a while and Sokka thought he might have gotten his request.He knew he should be walking away, leaving.But he found his feet could not move.

“If you asked, I wouldn’t marry her.”Zuko said it so quietly, turning around so he could see Sokka.And Sokka could see him. Sokka debated acting like he hadn’t heard but his body was already reacting, his hand reaching out and his foot stepping forward.He stopped himself before getting any further. 

Could he ask? He thinks of all the pain he’s felt in the last year, all the heartbreak he’s caused them both.He could stop it all, they could be happy.He knew they would be happy, together.But their nations would suffer for their happiness.That was something he could not allow, no matter how much he loved the man who was asking him to stay.

“I cannot ask.You know I cannot ask.”He saw Zuko nod.He saw Zuko shut down the emotion that had been settling on his face.Resignation, hurt, acknowledgment of a truth they both understood.

“I had to check.”He said it so simply, like this conversation wasn’t tearing up his insides the way it was tearing up Sokka’s. 

He wanted to cry, to weep, to break.Instead he kept his voice steady and replied, “I know.”Zuko was always the stronger one.

Zuko turned back to the pond.And Sokka stood for a while longer.He watched as Zuko breathed in and out, the torchlights around the garden breathing with him.He tried to soak in the scene and all its pain.Once Zuko was married, they’d never be able to do even this.

“I love you.” Zuko said, as though it were that simple.And maybe it was.

“I know.” Sokka barely got out. _I love you too_. He wanted to say it, it would be so easy to say it.Sokka took a step forward and then stopped again.He’d never been one to hesitate in the past, but he’d never had the fate of nations sitting so heavily on his shoulders.

A nation or this.His people or this.It was a harder choice than it should’ve been.But it was one he forced himself to make.He took a bracing breath and took another step, but in the opposite direction to where his body was screaming at him to head.And another step.Walking shouldn’t be this hard, he’d had a broken leg and walking on that was easier than this.

He tried to tell himself it wasn’t really a goodbye.That he and Zuko would see each other often in the years to come.That they would still be friends.He found that he couldn’t quite believe any of it.

Sokka knew that he’d see Zuko again.But he also knew that he’d never see _this_ Zuko again.His Zuko.The one who whispered his love to the pond and had hope that it would be returned.The one who’d spent weeks crafting a beautiful necklace for a boy he loved and a boy who loved him back. 

In a moment of either weakness or strength, Sokka stopped at Zuko’s chambers.He left a simple note, invisible against the parchment he bought earlier that day.He left it on the now empty desk, the ring that was once their now decorating Huni’s hand.The necklace gone.It looked like blank scrap parchment except for its careful placement in the middle of the desk.

Sokka left late that night, not even waking his friends to say goodbye.

He’d never learn if Zuko had thrown out the scrap, not realizing the secret he’d written on it.

He’d never know that as his boat pulled away from the Fire Nation coast and sailed South, that Zuko sat at his desk sobbing over a simple piece of paper.

_I love you too._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, if you found any errors please let me know!
> 
> If you ever want to talk Zukka message me at tumblr: whowhatwhenwhereandwhynot


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